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Archive for April, 2010

Shad, an elusive anadromous sea fish, run the River Barrow during early May to spawn in gravel at the head of the tide below the village of St. Mullins, Co. Carlow. A consequence of this yearly migration are large numbers of anglers who flock to the venue in the hope of luring a specimen weight fish from the large shoals that pass through. It is not easy for at times the river can seem empty of fish, and on other occasions it can be a fish a cast. Dawn and dusk are good taking periods, so having established that the Shad were in, I hit the road early arriving at St. Mullins bang on 06.30am on Friday 30th April, 2010.

With the bank holiday weekend ahead an advanced guard of anglers were already in situe. The spring tide was nearly full in and one or two Shad had been landed. Casting a blue/silver, 13.5 gram Tazmanian Devil until 09.00am with no takes I called it a morning. Eric Gosnell, up from Co. Cork had better luck landing a couple of fish over the top of the tide. The next week will see shoals of Shad enter the system which warrants another visit or two once the bank holiday mayhem is over.

The coldest winter since 1963 has kept water temperatures down and delayed growth by at least one month. This in turn has had an effect on fly life on and around the river. Last Sunday was sunny and bright with a chilly breeze blowing from the south east. I decided to downstream wetfly fish the River Slaney between Aghade Bridge and Clonegal.

What do I have to do to catch a Pike? That’s the third fruitless expedition that I have taken to the north east counties of Cavan/Monaghan, moaned Dave. “Go fishing with Peadar O’Brien, he will put you on the fish. In fact I will give him a ring now”. Five minutes later the trip was arranged for Thursday 25th March 2010. “You will have a Pike within an hour of getting in Peadars boat”. “Go way”, says Dave, “I’ll believe it when I see it”.